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Hello looking for a source of 2oz (70 micron) single sided copper clad PCB. I have looked at rs, farnell, and rapid and non of them list 70 micron thick copper PCB's. I am looking to finish the build on my power supply and it is this or wiring a bread board up and while I am much more familiar with bread board wiring I was hoping to learn a bit more in the process. So anyone know a source that I can get this from?

No need to spend 15 mins watching a video which just shows something that can be calculated in well under 3 mins.

Originally Posted by ecat

Conclusion of video: A 50% reduction in the resistance of a 1oz copper track, see video for dimensions, is easily achieved.

Is this good enough for m.marino's application? I have no idea.

He can only find 1oz, but needs 2oz which implies the resistance needs to be halved. Since this is for a power supply space is not likely to be an issue, so doubling the trace width is the easiest option.

I should mention that in a demanding application where the current fluctuates a lot it's not sensible to add copper wire to the track since it expands at a different rate with changes in temperature compared to the solder, so it can cause cracks over time. A better way would be to solder a thick jumper wire. Wire is cheaper than solder...

Another option (assuming all 'through hole' components are being used) ...use double sided 1oz copper board, just arrange it so that your bottom layer is a replica of the top layer (so it would need to be mirrored)....voila you've got 2oz copper board for all your tracks!

If you're worried about alignment...just make sure your pcb board design has some index holes so that when you flip the board, everything will be aligned perfectly on the 2nd isolation run (and presumably this being a powers supply, your tracks are going to be quite chunky, which will be more forgiving for alignment)

Oh come on Jonathan, stop being such a tease. What is your 2 minute calculation and how exactly does it change the measured result shown in the video?

While you're at it, what is a 'demanding application', what is 'a lot', what is the difference in the heating effect of a fluctuating current and a steady current, and what evidence do you have for this 'cracking over time' in any reasonably well designed product?

The application is for 69V DC @ 15A through 5 4700uf cap's to power 4 drivers with shop temp's going down into the negative numbers when shut down (shop is lightly heated and closed down in evening as not running over 10 hrs per day at present). Back EMF is a possibility (though not highly likely with the AM882 drivers). This is going to be inspected by a professional spark as it is part of a business and needs to fall under normal practices for safety and insurance purposes (which is why I am having to tidy everything up and rewire some safe but not clean pathways on the machine).

You idea has merit, that I will agree but those I have to please in the legal side of the real world are a different beast, they see things in nice boxes and you have to meet that when dealing with coverage and business practice issues. I won't go into my rant on this issue.

Oh come on Jonathan, stop being such a tease. What is your 2 minute calculation and how exactly does it change the measured result shown in the video?

It's just resistors in parallel - it doesn't change the result, just shows it without having to watch the video which takes longer.

Originally Posted by ecat

While you're at it, what is a 'demanding application', what is 'a lot',

It depends...One where you are trying to conduct a higher current through the track than reccomended, and one where that current changes from a high to low value frequently but at a low frequency.

Originally Posted by ecat

what is the difference in the heating effect of a fluctuating current and a steady current,

The peak temperature will be the same, but if the current fluctuates at a low frequency (say the device is turned on for 5 mins then switched of, then turned on after 10 mins) the temperature of the solder and copper wire will rise and fall, and since they expand at different rates this results in metal fatigue, so the material can fail over time.

Post #23 in this thread says that adding solder to the track does not comply with CE regulations, although I've seen it in plenty of ATX PSUs I've dismantled.

This discussion is a bit over the top though for a PSU powering stepper motors. Although the transformer is presumably capable of delivering 15A constant current, it never will in this application since at 69V that is well over the power rating of 4 Nema 24 stepper motors. From m.marino's build log we can see that he's using the standard Nema 24 3Nm motors, so from the datasheet the motor is rated for 4.2A and 5.46V, so the power rating is 4.2*5.46=23W per phase, two phases so 46W. Four motors so 184W. If the average power drawn from the PSU is any more than that then the motors are being run outside their ratings and should overheat. Therefore the rms current drawn from the PSU is 184/69=2.7A which is far less than the 15A we were previously designing for. It cannot be higher for a significant amount of time, otherwise you are exceeding the motor's rating. Clearly there will be current spikes well above 2.7A, but the duration of these is small so they are not important for thermal considerations